CAV JUDGMENT

Date : 31-08-2024 Heard Mr. Suryakant Kumar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, Mr. Gyan Shankar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Bihar School Examination Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) as well as Mr. Madhaw Pd.

Yadav, learned counsel for the State.

2. The petitioner has approached this Court for the following reliefs:-

(i) For directing the respondents, specially the respondent no. 5, to declare the petitioner qualified in Secondary Teacher Eligibility Test, 2019 (hereinafter referred as STET) Examination for appointment of Secondary School Teacher in Sanskrit Subject and accordingly publish the result of the petitioner who belongs to Economically Weaker Section (hereinafter referred as EWS) i.e. reserved Category as the petitioner has secured about 47.3% marks in the STET Examination for Sanskrit Subject.

(ii) For direction to the respondents to make appointment of the petitioner as secondary school teacher in Sanskrit Subject.

(iii) For any other relief / reliefs for which the petitioner is found entitled to in the facts and circumstances of the case.

3. The case at length is that, petitioner passed M.A. in the subject of Sanskrit in year 2008 from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya with first division and further completed his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Magadh University in the year 2019. In the same year, an advertisement was published vide Advertisement No.PR 373 / 2019, the Board, Patna inviting applications for STET Examination for appointment of Secondary / Senior Secondary School Teachers for various subjects including 1054 posts for Sanskrit Subject in Secondary School (Annexure-1 of the writ petition). In the said advertisement, it was mentioned that after furnishing subject-wise and category-wise details of posts by the Education Department, a merit list of qualified candidates would be prepared from higher marks to lower marks, in descending order, on the basis of marks of all the candidates in STET. The para 4 of the advertisement described programme for examination according to which Paper-I examination would be held for Secondary Teacher and Paper-II examination would be held for Senior Secondary Teacher.

4. In para-5 of the advertisement, it is mentioned that questions of eligibility test examination would be of multiple options having four options for each question with one mark for every question and there would be no negative marking. In para/clause-11, minimum qualification marks were prescribed as 50% for General Category and 45% for all reserved categories. Petitioner, being eligible, applied online for Paper-I in the STET with all desired documents online as an EWS category candidate (Annexure-2 of the writ petition).

5. Further, the petitioner got Admit Card and appeared in Paper-I Examination on 28.01.2020 at Gaya High School, Gaya but the examination was cancelled due to question leak before the examination and accordingly, examination was rescheduled and held on 09.09.2020 online at ION Digital Zone IDZ 2, Patliputra, Patna. The result of the aforesaid examination was declared on 21.06.2021 online and petitioner was declared not qualified with 71 marks out of 150 marks which was about 47.3% (Annexure-3 of the writ petition).

6. That even after getting 71 marks i.e. 47.33%, petitioner was not declared qualified whereas for reserved category, as per advertisement, qualifying marks was 45%, so the petitioner tried to meet the Examination Controller and the Secretary of the Board but due to Covid-19 they refused to meet, hence, he represented and filed application before the Chairman, Secretary and Examination Controller of the Board through speed post on 26.06.2021. Petitioner also represented himself before the Education Minister, Bihar on 09.07.2021, who assured to look into the matter but nothing has happened till today.

7. He further submitted that according to para/clause-22 of the advertisement, any information regarding STET can be obtained under Right to